


Listening

by galacticproportions



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: M/M, New Relationship, Past Relationship(s), Reminiscence, Whatever the opposite of jealousy is, talking about sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-14
Updated: 2016-08-14
Packaged: 2018-08-08 15:22:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7762987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/galacticproportions/pseuds/galacticproportions
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Poe thinks back and Finn looks forward.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Listening

**Author's Note:**

  * For [orchis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/orchis/gifts).



> This is compatible with my Veterans' Affairs series, but isn't part of it.
> 
> You will gather that it's cicada season where I am.
> 
> Orchis, this is a response to your headcanon question, which I couldn't answer at the time because I don't use Tumblr myself; I hope it makes you smile. Thanks for talking with me about space dumbasses in love.

They barely reach cover before the patrol of occupying stormtroopers thunders past them, alerted to intruders but apparently not familiar enough yet with the terrain here to think in terms of hiding places. The old water tank--at least, Finn hopes it's water, it smells neutral and doesn't seem to be eating holes in their boots--has enough room for both of them to prop their backs against the wall and half-sit, half squat, and every motion makes either a scraping or a clanging sound.

 They sit rigid until the sound of boots dies away and is slowly replaced by a shrill, sustained, metallic sound that rises and fills every corner of Finn's hearing. "Fuck, what the hell is that," he hisses in Poe's ear, "it sounds like some kind of weapon, are we totally fucked?"

 Poe says something he can't hear, and Finn cranes his neck to get his ear in front of Poe's mouth. Poe kisses it, which is frankly not productive, and apparently says, "Sex," which ordinarily Finn would be all for but this is definitely the wrong place _and_ the wrong time, so he says, " _What?"_

 "Insects!" Poe says in a half-whisper, half-shout. "Bugs. It's nothing to do with us, they do this every summer here around sundown, all through the tropics. It's good for us, it'll cover any noise we make."

 "How the hell did you know that," Finn says, "it sounds exactly like something designed to kill people."

 "I used to fuck a guy from here."

 "Oh," Finn says, a little taken aback. "Did you...come here with him, or something?"

 "Nah. He had a recording of the sound, he used to play it to help him get to sleep."

 Finn experiences genuine horror. "How'd you stand it?"

"He didn't play it out loud, he had it on an earpiece. But then some of the other guys in the dorms, this was on a New Republic base when I was flying with them, they found out about it and said a bunch of stupid shit to him and smashed it. So I fought them."

 "That was nice of you," Finn says, meaning it. And then, teasing, "Gallant. Would you do that for me?"

 Poe picks at his fingers--Finn can't see him well but he can feel the motion of his elbow, and elbows back to remind him to cut it out. "I wasn't fucking him yet when I did it," he says. "So, yeah."

 It takes Finn a while to fill in the gaps, partly because of the sound, like a power drill to his eardrum. "Who?" he says finally.

 "I don't think you even know them. I don't think they'd even met you, but I heard them planning to wait for you outside the fresher blocks, this was probably a couple weeks after you were up and around, so ..." He shrugs, the motion pressing his shoulder tighter against Finn's.

 "What if you'd been away from base?"

"Then you would've dealt with it. I wouldn't do it now, I'd let you handle it if it needed handling, it was just because you were still in physical therapy and learning your way around and I--" He stops because Finn is kissing him. "No, I would do it now. But I'd check with you first. Probably."

 "Tell me about the guy," Finn says, settling back to the best of his ability. Just when he thinks he's gotten used to the sound, it changes slightly in intensity or pitch and grates on his ears with a fresh insufferability. When Poe talks, at least there's something else to concentrate on. Plus, he likes it when Poe tells stories. Stories that fill in Finn's picture of the galaxy, stories about his own past--there's so _much_ of it, for one thing, so many _different_ things he's done. Finn knows from talking to other people in the Resistance that this amount of variety is about par for someone Poe's age who wasn't kidnapped at age four and brought up to be a soldier, but it's an endless delight to him that no matter how many stories Poe tells, there's always _more_ things that have happened to him.

 And he likes hearing Poe talk about other people he's been with, likes hearing him say the kinds of things he's saying now: "He was funny as hell, but I can't remember a single actual joke he made, it was just the way he said things. Or not even. Like I'd be fucking him and he'd have his legs up on my shoulders, he was also flexible as hell, and he'd just _look_ at me this certain way and I'd crack up. I'm not making it sound as hot as it was. I wish I could remember anything he actually said that was funny." His voice flattens out a little at the end in a way that makes Finn ask, "Is he dead?"

 "Yeah. Stupid accident. Bad seal on a hose."

 "Tell me about someone who's still alive," Finn says. "We have time. They'll keep searching the area for a little longer still before they return to their standard patrol route."

 "You did this," Poe says.

 "Drills, I did drills. I only did it once onplanet."

 "Did you catch...them?"

 "No. Tell me about someone who's still alive."

 The silence (except for the insects) that follows is depressingly long.

 "Imani Calrissian," Poe says finally. "She's still alive. A head taller than me, skin like yours, runs one of the best spy networks we've got, out of Bespin. Her dad's an old Rebel fighter, kinda by default, you might've heard Han--heard the General mention him. Force alive, I hope nobody but you can hear what I'm saying right now."

 "I don't," Finn says, enunciating clearly, "think anybody outside this tank can hear a fucking thing."

 "Fair point. So, Imani. That was more of a one-time thing--okay, two times--and I can't say I acquitted myself all that well, but in my defense, she was the first person to blow me with her fingers up my ass, and I didn't even know that was a thing. You should've seen me."

 "I have seen you."

 "Fair point," Poe says again. "She was very nice to me. Very patient. She also made me eat her out for like, a standard day, but I can't honestly complain about that. Oh! And Iolo, you know Iolo, we've fucked a bunch of times and he's still alive," and Poe makes a complicated spitting gesture over his left shoulder, one that Finn's seen him to do ward evil away. "He's great. Sarcastic, but in a fun way. Gives _amazing_ head. Totally worth your time, if you--"

 "Nah," Finn says. "I already know someone like that." This time it's Poe who leans over to kiss him, lingeringly and with a rasp of stubble that makes Finn wish they were somewhere else, with no time to keep track of and nowhere to go. He wants to do with Poe everything Poe says he's done with other people, he wants to do things that each of them has only dreamed of, he wants to do things that neither of them has even imagined. He wants time to do all those things, and he's willing to fight for that time.

 Sometimes that feels like a stupid reason to fight a war, and then he remembers that's not his only reason. It's just the closest one. The one he trusts the most.

 Finn says, "They've almost definitely moved off by now." He pictures the map of the city in his head. "Let's count sixty breaths just to be sure. They'll probably fan out in groups of four along the main arteries of this quarter. If we stick to side streets to the rendezvous point we should be fine--it's gonna be first right, second left, third left, first right. If you can't hold that in your head, just follow me. We good?"

 "When we get someplace safe," Poe says in response, "I'm gonna suck your soul out through your dick."

 Finn's smile starts somewhere under his heart and rises to his face, and for a second it's almost like the world is quiet. "I look forward to it," he says.

 


End file.
